Consumers will soon be able to easily check the carbon footprint of their purchased goods under a new scheme by the Carbon Trust and the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong.
Representatives from the trust - a British non-profit group dedicated to promoting low carbon economies - and the association yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding, signalling their desire to raise carbon-footprint awareness by labelling products.
The agreement comes days after a study showed that about 1,600 people in Hong Kong died prematurely in the first half of the year because of air pollution.
"We act as if we own the [earth], but we are just tenants," said Carbon Trust director for Asia, Jan Van der Ven. "If the earth were a hotel room, would we get our deposit back upon checking out? I don't think so."
Van der Ven said the agreement was a "step in the right direction".
The trust and the association - which represents more than 3,000 member companies from across various sectors of industry and trade - hope to sign up 100 companies to the initiative in the scheme's first two years.